Dark Souls II - Miyazaki Interview @ Edge

January 30th, 2013, 18:31

Edge Online talked to Dark Souls producer Hidetaka Miyazaki to learn that amongst others he is only involved in it's follow up Dark Souls II as a supervisor.

“I will not be involved in the actual development of Dark Souls II,” he says matter-of-factly. “I want to clarify that I will be a supervisor, not the actual director or producer.”
This is a crushing revelation for any hardcore fan of Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls, akin to a cinephile learning that Pulp Fiction 2 is in production, but that Quentin Tarantino isn’t attached to the picture. The strong personal tie between Miyazaki and the two dark fantasy RPGs he’s created to date has been well established. He explained to us in a previous interview, for instance, that the veil of ambiguity hovering over the Souls games grew out of his experiences as a child poring over western fantasy literature. Due to his patchy comprehension of English at the time, there were large chunks of each book he couldn’t decipher, leaving him to fill in the details with his imagination. He set out to create that same sense of awe and bewilderment in his games, letting players fill in the gaps with their imagination instead of having every plot point and objective clearly articulated through in-game text or cutscenes.

I don't know much about the Dark Souls franchise and I know even less about Mr. Hidetaka and From Software. If this is really about Mr. Hidetaka wanting to move on because he's tired of what he's been doing in the past then fine. But if this is something the company has decided when Mr. Hidetaka would otherwise be happy to work on a sequel, that would be a real head scratcher.

— If I'm right but there is no wife around to acknowledge it, am I still right?

From what I have gathered from the Watch — and anyone can feel free to correct my assumptions, speculation and prediction — Mr. Miyazaki sounds like he may be a bit uncompromising, just like his Dark Souls game is. And it sounded to me like he was probably marginalized by whomever, because they want to make the next sequel…..brace for it…. more accessible. So, in the never-ending corporate quest for more money by appealing to a larger audience, they will destroy what made the game a hit in the first place. Yet another example of the trend we have all seen ruining the games we love for quite some time now.

I hope they don't change a thing in regards to how hardcore the series has been so far. I also hope they stay with the minimalist plot and overall vagueness of what you're supposed to do. Those things have been a trademark of From Software titles since the King's Field Series.

I didn't "get" Dark Souls at first, but now that I do, well… it's fucking awesome.

Well, I'm still not getting it. I'm finding the grinding is just boring. I don't have a real problem with the difficulty. It's hard for sure but if you just take your time and be very careful I find I don't die too much.

My problem is I still do die a couple times from regular enemies ( usually by pressing the wrong button which makes it more frustrating)and have to start back at the bonfire and slowly work my way back. I will most definitely die repeated times at a boss until I learn the pattern and will have to go back to the bonfire and slowly work my way back. Then when I'm not dying I have to go back to the bonfire and level up resetting all the enemies and slowly work my way back.

Replaying the same areas that many times is burning me out. They should at least let you level up without going to the bonfire. I suppose then you wouldn't be able to grind enough to get strong enough for the monsters ahead. It just seems there is no way to play other than play the same areas and fight the same monsters over and over again.

Generally speaking I'm quite rubbish at twitch oriented action games, but with Dark Souls I made an exception in wanting to try and succeed simply due to the nature of the design.

Whilst some repetition seems inevitable during the early character building phase of the game, I feel that it is overall quite justified in supporting the humanity/souls mechanic as it neatly ties in thematically with the cyclical game concept of recurring life and death.

I acknowledge and understand that this idea and kind of experience isn't for everyone, but I certainly hope minimal to no compromises are made in the overall design if a sequel is made. Dilution of the Dark Souls concept and gameplay simply isn't desirable to me and hopefully to many of its other fans. I don't say this with any kind of elitist credo, but rather with a specific aesthetic enjoyment of a unique kind of gaming experience.

I don't play MMO's at all because of the tendency those games have towards generic content, but again with Dark Souls, I made an exception. I won't wax lyrical too much more about the game here (see the impressions thread in General forum if you haven't already and are curious) only to say that I'll continue to follow these developments as they arise.

Originally Posted by Pessimeister
I don't play MMO's at all because of the tendency those games have towards generic content, but again with Dark Souls, I made an exception.

I don't consider Dark Souls an MMO, and I think that comparison might confuse people who haven't played it yet. Interaction with other players is part of the experience if you choose for it to be, but that's where any similarities end. There's really nothing MMOish about DS at all imo.

To clarify, I'm merely comparing the act of "grinding levels" and the cyclic nature of repetition, to such given treadmill type gameplay found within most common MMOs.
Obviously it's different in Dark Souls and I've made that point very clearly here and in my other posts.
The requirement for grinding is relative and dependent upon your skill as a player and partially the validity of your character build.

I'm not sure what "grinding levels" has to do with modern MMOs. In your average MMO, you level up through quest content and combat, exactly like an RPG. It might take longer, but you don't "grind" mobs to level up. It used to be that way, however - before WoW.

The grinding aspect is typically introduced at end-game when you're max level, where you're grinding gear, because they can't produce content fast enough and what's there is exhausted.

But grind is a subjective term - and one man's grind is another man's interesting gameplay.

Personally, I consider Dark Souls very grindy because of the respawn philosophy. That doesn't mean it can't be fun - but unless you're extremely good, you will be grinding a hell of a lot.

I call it a grind, because I despise repetition with a very strong passion. For others, they might consider it a natural part of the challenge, and a strong motivator to excel in the game - so it's not a grind in the objective sense.

As for Dark Souls 2 - I doubt it could be anymore obvious that it'll be a more accessible experience. So, fans can kiss the old design goodbye right now.

Still, it might not be a bad thing - it depends on execution and the passion of the developers involved. But if the guy with the vision has a much smaller role, it's unusual to have a new guy with as powerful a vision as the original. The strongest visionaries tend to focus on their own thing, rather than take over the work of another. Then again, we're talking Japan - where it's not uncommon to place honor and dedication to work above the US standard of focusing on the bottom line.

The one change I'd like to see (and I am still in the early parts of Dark Souls) is slightly narrower spacing of bonfires (or the future equivalent - respawn points). I enjouy the challenge to replay a section until I have perfected it enough to beat a boss, - but after that it feels anticlimatic to grind the same area again for a boss a little further out, and then maybe another one a little further out yet…